And We All Have A Hell
by Flamboyant Squirtle
Summary: Every trainer experiences trauma at some point. Unfortunately, I experienced it too soon. Now a demon is haunting me and I'm struggling to keep it from ripping my sanity to shreds.
1. World War Me

…**And We All Have A Hell**

**PROLOGUE  
****World War Me**

_I'm on the verge of self destruction__  
__Suffering because of my selfish voices__  
__I'm on the verge of self destruction, suffering__  
__Because I gave up on__ m__yself__a__nd everyone_

* * *

The truest of all facts about life is that it never has been and never will be easy. We are set upon the earth to face as many trials as whatever deity there is out there can throw at us.

Almost every newborn baby comes out from the womb red-faced and screaming. Doctors theorise that this is simply to test out their newly-developed lungs and respiratory system. Other people say they scream in protest of being forced out of the warmth and comfort of their mother's womb. Only a small group of people think outside the box enough to consider that they are screaming from fear, petrified of the harsh outside world they have been brought into.

The vast majority of people following this theory are pokémon trainers.

After all, youthful minds are a lot more sensitive to psychic visions and senses than older. Those who study the power of psychic people and pokémon believe that this is because a mind is still not closed off to such abilities. At birth, a child could be witnessing their future and frantically trying to block every trauma from ever resurfacing again. A baby's cries could just be their desperate attempt to lock that psychic part of the brain away. The theories are endless, but considering the fragility of such an infant mind, it is impossible to explore with a simple psychic probing.

The main point is that everybody goes through hardship. Trainers, however, know more than any the perils of the world. Every trainer – young or old, rookie or veteran, boy or girl – goes through multiple struggles in their career, some sooner than others. Most trainers give up after the first hardship, incapable of dealing with the guilt and pain the memories deal. Some go on for a few months, pushing their feelings to the back of their mind and pressing on regardless. The fact remains, however, that almost every trainer that you will ever encounter will retire or quit because of the same reason: it all just became too hard.

Trainers set out on their journeys for different reasons, but no matter the glory or the money or the fame, a trainer will always wear war wounds that dig miles deeper than the skin. The scars stay forever – abandonment, death, fear, destruction, heartbreak – the memories do not fade. These feelings are experienced by trainers daily through both the incidents themselves and the memories created from them. Blocking memories like these is impossible when you travel all day, every day with nothing but battles to distract yourself.

All trainers deal with these feelings differently. Some trainers go insane, see hallucinations and wander aimlessly in their own little world. Others trigger senselessness within themselves, blocking any and all emotions and waging war on the world. Many go rogue and vent their hatred, fear and sorrow onto every other being they see, even to the point of murder. And every trainer, without a doubt, cries.

Myself? I write. I don't do it to warn others of the world's dangers and I definitely would never do it to relive the memories myself. I do it to keep myself sane. Since I was a young child, I was always told to let everything out. I was told to share my every pain, physical or otherwise, and hope to any God that it would help ease it all. I'm still not sure if it's just a placebo effect, but writing helps me vent without whining to my pokémon or forcing another trainer to relive their nightmares.

A great woman once said, "Memories are not recycled like atoms and particles in quantum physics, they can be lost forever". While trauma sinks into your skin and becomes your entire being, the happiest times can slide off you as easily as butter. Even as writing allows me to vent negativity into the pages, it also lets me relive the happier times of my life as a trainer. More than anything, I cannot allow the light to be shrouded in darkness. I'm scared to think of how I would change my inner demons win over me. I already know that I've changed enough without it.

But without darkness, how can I defend my light? We all know the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And we all have a hell.

This is how I found mine.

* * *

Author's note.

General disclaimer goes here blah blah Pokémon is not mine.

This is going to be dark. Enjoy.


	2. Friends Never Say Goodbye

…**And We All Have A Hell**

**CHAPTER ONE**

**Friends Never Say Goodbye**

_There isn't much I haven't shared_

_With you along the road;_

_And through it all there'd always be_

_Tomorrow's episode._

* * *

It had always been uncommon for anybody in Unova to set out on a pokémon training journey on their own, especially at the age of ten. Children are always held back by either school, parents, friends or a combination. I was no exception. More than anything it was because I didn't want to travel without friendly company. I had known my future travelling partners my entire life and formed much closer bonds with them than anybody else. There was no way I would ever consider leaving without them.

Without Wayne Ford, however, a trainer journey would never have been considered. It was all his idea, three years before we left, that we would all set out on a journey together. His dark eyes glinted excitedly under the sunlight as we wolfed down our sandwiches at school. We all knew he was determined to become a famous pokémon trainer one day, but he was impatient and wanted us all to leave as soon as he hit ten.

He received his first pokémon on his tenth birthday (a pansear named Lucky) and left for his journey on his own when the other two of our three opted to stay at home and study for another few years. A day later, he stumbled back into town, crying, with bruises and burns all over his arms and face, shoulder length blonde hair matted and a broken thumb. Every few months he'd grow impatient and run off again, only to return exactly the same. And every time this happened, the third corner of our triangle was always there to take care of him.

Naomi Diviney, the most kind and motherly pre-teen in Unova, never liked to see her friends get hurt. She was my absolute best friend and the only person our age in town that was shorter than me. The fact that we were constantly together led people to believe we were sisters, sometimes even twins. I never understood why though, considering her hair was a lot darker than mine, almost black, and she had a much rounder face, while mine was thinner. She also had a bigger nose than me, very full lips and crystal-blue eyes, compared to my swampy-green ones. Like me, however, she decided to stay home for an extra two years to finish at least some of her art study. No matter what, she was always drawing something. I remember this one time she drew a pidove that looked as though it was about to fly out of the page and start pecking at the ground.

My admiration for her artistry was nothing compared to her idolization of me. To her, I was on the highest of pedestals and I had absolutely no clue why. Anybody who came into contact with us could see it, but nobody could ever pick a reason. I wasn't overly brave and impulsive like Wayne was or even artistic and motherly like Naomi herself. I was always a quiet child and though very logical and thoughtful, I stressed out a lot. I was always extremely easily intimidated and quick to flee from anything too difficult. I had allergies to a lot of things and I was short-sighted and extremely insecure, especially about my looks.

Since the start of school, our trio was bonded by what Naomi always thought was something destiny- or deity-related. After all, our birthdays _were_ exactly two months apart from each other. Ironically, the shortest of us three, Naomi, was also the oldest, born on the twenty-fifth of March. I was after her, born twenty-fifth of May, and Wayne finished us off on the same day in July. To me, ever the sceptic, it was all just a strange coincidence, but both she and Wayne were convinced that some higher power had tied us together. Clearly it was a giant dose of crap, but I chose to be polite and accept their views.

On my eleventh birthday I was given a surprise party. I had always absolutely despised surprises, but I decided not to show negativity on my birthday and played happy about the whole thing. I had wanted a party anyway, but my parents had insisted on not having one so that they could secretly prepare for a surprise. I got over the initial shock fairly quickly. It wasn't until it was time to open presents, though, that I really got excited.

At first I was extremely disappointed that there was nothing but an envelope sitting on the table and that it was addressed to me from everybody that was at the party. However, my initial disappointment vanished when the card inside the envelope informed me that everybody had chipped in to get me my first pokémon. And not from just any lowly breeder, one from the one and only Sir Noah, the most expensive, yet gifted breeder in Central Unova. Sir Noah was known to own and breed more 'shiny' pokémon than anybody in the country and even made sure they knew some special moves when they were born. He sold special pokémon to superstars, gym leaders and even the Elite Four.

He was also extremely handsome and had a smooth Sinnohan accent that could melt the hearts of any woman, as I found out once we got there. He was tall, athletically built and had the whitest teeth I had ever seen. He wore a suit, which I was surprised about, considering he was meant to be in fields all day, breeding pokémon. His large eyes were like melted chocolate, yet stared with hard determination – or was it distaste? – when we appeared at his facility.

As soon as we were introduced by Naomi's brother Joel (a part-time trainer and part-time guitarist in some unknown indie band), he disappeared with his then-munna. Sir Noah himself disappeared into the building for business reasons straight away, leaving us with his assistant – a cheery young girl with bright green eyes and a red bandanna poking out from under her purple-dyed hair and extending across her forehead.

"I'm a good guess of character," she said without introducing herself, adjusting her navy blue apron and checking her clipboard. "I can usually tell exactly what type and nature would suit best with a trainer, so don't you worry, kid. I know exactly what you need."

She took us through enclosures of various types of pokémon. Wayne was bored, expecting a lot cooler pokémon like druddigon and golurk, but followed along with our quick pace fairly well. It was Naomi who was dragging us down. She constantly had a sketchbook out and stopped to draw almost everything mildly interesting we came across. She insisted we stop and wait for her to draw the purple cubchoo, as well as the pink ducklett. It was at about that point that Naomi decided she wanted her first pokémon to be a ducklett as well.

The first enclosure Sir Noah's assistant took us to was full of tiny grey pokémon with huge ears, chasing each other and nibbling on small fruits. Of the twenty-odd minccino there, at least five were a pale burgundy colour. The assistant jumped the fence and began walking slowly through the enclosure. Eventually she picked out one of the off-coloured ones and brought it over. It squirmed in her arms, but relaxed after a few gentle strokes behind the ears. The assistant started reeling off random facts about the critter's age, family tree, shiny status, moves it knows through its breeding (including one where it can stiffen its tail like iron and inflict huge damage on its foe) and more stuff that I didn't really listen to.

As soon as I reached out to follow the assistant's lead, the fur ball swung a shining, metallic tail and smacked my hand away. The assistant jumped in shock and loosened her grip on the tiny chinchilla pokémon, allowing it to bound away back into the crowd. I bit my lip and scrunched my eyes in pain, trying to shake it off my hand. It actually felt like it had smacked me with an iron rod.

It was a shame. I would have liked a shiny pokémon as my starter.

The second enclosure we stopped at was a lot larger and contained a lot more pokémon. Inside were several men and women in lab coats studying the deerling and sawsbuck inside. Wayne gasped and immediately went to run for the biggest sawsbuck there, but was held back by the assistant as we walked slowly towards a group of younger deerling of various sizes and colours. Most were the usual rosy pink of spring with golden tufts of hair crowning their heads, but a few were paler with pink 'crowns'. We were led to the tallest standing deerling there, which was watching timidly as it nibbled at the grass.

"This one already has a name: Marla," the assistant said. "She was born a while ago and has grown a lot, but isn't very experienced in battle. She has a very large build for a deerling, but it runs in her genes. Her mother is the largest sawsbuck we have and her brother is smaller by less than an inch. She warms up to people very quickly and easily and she's quick to protect those she loves. She's just extremely shy and slow to battle. Unfortunately, new trainers don't have the patience to help her with her confidence, so she has been here a while."

She then gestured for me to approach the deerling. I bit my lip and took a careful step towards the grazing pokémon. After that minccino I was extra wary of what the thing could do. I was half-expecting her to turn around and kick me in the stomach or head or undeveloped chest. She stared up at me with her large, cautious eyes. After a second step, the deerling jumped awkwardly backwards, keeping her eyes on me at all times as she chewed the remains of her grass.

Then, ever so hesitantly, she took a step towards me. I grinned at the deerling and she bashfully ducked its head down, not taking her eyes off me.

"I knew it," the assistant said with a fist pump. Marla recoiled slightly, but loosened up again soon after. "I told you I'm good at this. Marla is perfect. And it's about time she found her perfect trainer." She approached slowly and gave the deerling a scratch behind the ears. "She's not shiny like the minccino, nor has it got any awesome moves like that iron tail, but she still comes with benefits."

"Doesn't look like it," Wayne said through a snort from behind me. I jerked my head around to poke my tongue out at him, which made Marla flinch a little. Naomi was sitting down a little further away with her sketchbook out and eyes focused on the smaller fawns prancing around. "She just looks like a normal deerling, just bigger. I bet Lucky could smash it."

Naomi giggled to herself. "Yet you're the one who went on an adventure like a million times only to come home the next day."

"Hey, at least I tried!" he all but yelled. Most deerling in the immediate vicinity lifted their heads to investigate. Marla jumped backwards, ears alertly perked and eyes trained on the blonde boy, who shrugged it off. "Besides, the thing's a coward. Why would you even want it?"

"I don't know," I said with a shrug. There was a quirkiness to the deerling that I found adorable. Its sheer size was a bonus as well – it probably had a lot of untapped power. "I feel like I connect with her. And she hasn't tried to bite me or kick me or something. I think I'll take her."

"But it's _weak_."

"She's part grass-type, so she's fairly tame already," the assistant explained, completely ignoring Wayne's drawling. "She's very quick on her feet, but tends to get lost and confused a lot. She is an herbivore, which means she only eats plants, but she is allergic to most sweet berries, which she unfortunately likes the most, so you will have to feed her medication if she ingests anything she shouldn't. She is fine with sweeter fruits however. She goes mad over apples."

I nod as she continued to reel off information. I had never thought about how high maintenance a single pokémon could be. If I had to remember all this for just one pokémon, Reshiram knew how I'd be able to care for a full team of six. Apparently Marla was level six in strength and became a lot more agile and swift in strong sunlight. Against other pokémon she could only really tackle and growl, but was able to blend in with her surroundings and even gain a change in typing because of it.

The next half hour was spent filling out adoption paperwork. It was a nice day, so the assistant let us do it out all on a small table out in the front garden where Marla could stay out of her pokéball and get used to us without being too far from the herd. She sat quietly, a few metres away from us, occasionally nibbling at the soft grass beneath her. She didn't seem to like Wayne too much, judging by how she did not dare to take her eyes off of him. He just poked his tongue out at her and continued boasting about how easily Lucky could beat her in a battle.

"Okay, so here's my card," the assistant said, handing me the small object with a smile after all of the paperwork had been signed. "You're going on a trainer journey at some point, so you'll need to get a Trainer Card before you do that and you'd need a referee to confirm that you are fit to become one. I can probably help you out there."

I nodded and read the card as she spoke.

NOAH JORDAN BREEDING AND POKÉMON CARE

YVONNE LICHTENBERG

BREEDING ASSISTANT

It was followed with contact details and a picture of a smiling blonde girl with the same facial features of the assistant in front.

"I dye my hair every six months, but I'm naturally blonde," she said with a nonchalant laugh. Clearly she had noticed my confusion. "Anyway, you'll probably be told this when you get your Trainer's License, but by law you can only carry six pokémon on you at a time. If you catch any extra, they will automatically be sent to this facility to be cared for while you train. If you wish to swap your team around or anything, just give me a call and I'll get to you as quickly as possible. In fact, if you need help with anything at all, just call me on that number."

"Okay," I mumbled, placing the card in my pocket.

There was a lot more talk about our training adventure after that. Naomi was determined to start with a ducklett and planned to ask her parents as soon as she got home for one. Wayne was still bragging about how much better Lucky was in comparison to Marla, even though there wasn't any proof. I decided not to argue with him, though, and opted to think out when we would set off on our journey. We needed ample time to prepare ourselves for the coming adventure. I knew as well as anyone else that the reason Wayne had always returned home so soon whenever he left was because he was never prepared enough.

By the time Joel returned with his munna, it was mutually decided then that Naomi would ask for a ducklett for her twelfth birthday, which was ten months away at that point. That gave us enough time to prepare and Naomi's parents enough time to save up funds to actually get the ducklett for her. It would also allow sufficient time for me to get to know Marla and hopefully get to train her. Although in my heart I believed that Marla and I would make a great team, it scared me to death to think that I may have had to start my journey with a pokémon too timid to battle.

These thoughts in mind, we vanished from the Noah Jordan Breeding Facility in a cloud of purple mist.

-.-.-.-

Ten months on and my fears were realised. I had bonded pretty well with Marla, yes, but she was still as timid and awkward as she had been the day I'd met her. I had tried on numerous occasions to get her battling, but she never took on anything unless it posed a threat to me. Even then she was reluctant and barely hit to her strengths. Furthermore, my parents, who weren't too happy with the size of the starter I brought home in the first place, were getting anxious about the insufficient space in our small house for Marla to live in. Deerling were known to enjoy open spaces and our tiny two-bedroom house was far from that.

It was a relief for all three of us when Naomi's birthday finally rolled around. I had been at her house all night, gossiping and giggling about everything and everyone until we finally fell asleep just after midnight from exhaustion. Wayne arrived early that morning with a largely overstocked backpack, the pokédex he had received for his birthday eight months ago and a triumphant grin. It was finally time for the three of us to set off on our long anticipated journey.

It was a warm spring morning. Naomi's mother cooked the three of us a huge breakfast while her father was off somewhere in the car. Joel was sprawled on the couch watching some tv show with his palpitoad resting sleepily on his stomach. Wayne took all of the bacon to himself while Naomi and I shared the stack of pancakes as we watched a grazing Marla, who was tied to a tree in the front yard.

"I can't believe your dad wouldn't let me stay over last night because I'm a _boy_," Wayne grunted, shoving about six crispy rashers at once into his mouth. How he could stretch his cheeks that fat was beyond me. "I've known you guys for like eight years."

"Parents are weird," I commented with a shrug. "It doesn't matter though! We know we'll be friends forever."

"Wuhshod mek apuhk," said Wayne through a mouth full of bacon. He saw mine and Naomi's questioning looks and swallowed. "We should make a pact!"

"Do you even know what that is?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"He does actually," Naomi interjected matter-of-factly. "Didn't you say you had a pact with my brother once? That you would both reach the Elite Four at the same time or something and double battle through them?"

"Oh right! That was the first time you left and Joel was meant to mentor you," I said in reminiscence, then snorted. "Wow, you got real far with that one didn't you?"

"At least I was brave enough to leave! You two were scaredy-cats!" He proceeded to glare straight into my smug eyes while he shoved another eight rashers of bacon into his mouth. How the hell was he doing that?

I went to retort but was interrupted by Naomi with a shaky, "Can we not fight about this again?" The issue was then dropped as we watched a white car roll up the small driveway to the left and Naomi's father hop out, her spherical package in hand.

Ten minutes later we were all staring at a blue duck with large, black eyes as it fluttered around the room in hysterics. Apparently it was bought it of some old man who was supposed to be a breeder, but when Naomi's father arrived to pick it up, the man seemed a lot shadier than he had first thought. It was understandable, considering the whole thing was organized over the phone. Everything went smoothly though and he had (obviously) gotten a real ducklett out of it. The only thing that the man neglected to mention was the bird's, for lack of a better word, flighty demeanour.

As soon as the ducklett settled down on top of a tall cabinet in the lounge room it was still enough for Wayne to scan it with his pokédex. Apparently the Ducklett was only just hatched and had probably only just learned to fly, being at its first level of strength. It only knew how to shoot small sprays of water from its bill, it was male and it apparently enjoyed eating peat moss.

Naomi's mother smiled through her concerned eyes from behind me. I guessed, like any mother, she was scared of losing her baby girl. "Are you going to give him a name?"

"Wright – like the guys who invented the airplanes," she said almost instantly, just as I predicted she would. Since I had received Marla we had been planning every detail of the trip through the region, from distribution of supplies to our teams. It just so happened that at the time we were choosing names for the ducklett, we were also learning about the Wright brothers at school.

I liked to be prepared for things like this, unlike Naomi and Wayne. Wayne was far too impatient and Naomi just preferred to go with the winds. I doubt I would have left with them if Wright was given to Naomi any sooner. Ten months was plenty of time for me to organize everything for all three of us and with a little help from the others I got everything done weeks before the ducklett was bought. I spent all of my pocket money on pokéballs, berries, food and camping supplies in the first six months of preparation. By the end of the ten months I had then saved another six-thousand poké, even after buying myself some durable hiking clothes at my father's request.

Wayne and I both planned our teams out from start to finish. We knew that we would be getting Joel to Teleport us to Accumula Town to start our journeys. My first plan was to catch something that would beat up his pansear. Over time I had gotten sick of him constantly bragging about how much tougher his flaming monkey was against Marla. I needed a water-type pokémon to shut him up, so the first of the camping supplies I bought was a fishing rod. Hopefully there was some water somewhere along the route between Accumula and Striaton for me to find something in. If not, I'd just have to wait until we were done in Striaton City and catch something on the next route.

From then on I planned to catch anything that would help me with the next Gym Leader I was going to face. After all, what would a training journey be without collecting gym badges? Even without study, the Gym Leaders of Unova were known enough for people to be prepared for their battles. Even with the twenty-or-so gyms in Unova, everybody knew what type of pokémon each one specialised in. If Naomi, Wayne and I were going to follow the traditional path, however, I knew that I needed a fighter to help me with the Nacrene City Gym, then various others for the rest.

Wayne made a point clear that he was content with only the strongest of pokémon in his team. His dream team consisted of Lucky alongside a conkeldurr, an excavalier, a gigalith, a hydreigon and last, but very obviously not the least, the one and only cobalion. I was impressed with his ambition, to say the least.

Naomi decided she would catch whatever appealed to her when it came along.

The morning passed with numerous visitors I didn't know coming to wish Naomi a happy birthday and good fortune on the training journey. She was showered with gifts of pokéballs, healing supplies, hiking and adventure clothes. A rich aunt even gave Naomi her own pokédex. It was clear that the word had got around that we were leaving that day. Needless to say, I was ecstatic at how overstocked we had become. This was going to be _easy_.

It was almost midday when my parents arrived with my satchel full of loaded item capsules to wish us all farewell. It was long and filled with so many different emotions that I couldn't think straight. Then, when we were all farewelled out, our bodies were bruising from hugs and our eyes were sore from tears, Joel and his newly evolved musharna whisked us away with a single command.


	3. Twisted Fiction

…**And We All Have A Hell**

**CHAPTER TWO**

**Twisted Fiction**

_You might think you've picked the scene_

_You haven't; the real one's far too mean._

_Twisted fiction, sick addiction;_

_Well gather round children, zip it, listen._

We rematerialized on a stone sidewalk facing a large, brown brick building. Well, all of the buildings were brown brick, but this one was a lot more business-like. It had almost wall-sized tinted windows and sliding glass doors a little to the left of us. People of all ages, shapes, sizes, genders and colours barely allowed the doors to shut with the frequency they were rushing in and out. A quick look at the sign told me that this building was the Unovan Trainer Authority, or UTA.

The UTA was designed to test potential trainers, issue Trainer Licenses, enforce training laws and manage route systems to ensure the safest passage from one route to another. They employed the majority of Pokémon Rangers in the region and governed the region's Pokémon Centres. This UTA building was the largest in Unova. One would guess that it would be in Castelia City or some other huge city, but Accumula Town was where most trainers started their journeys. The only place south was Nuvema Town, which only had a small UTA office connected to its laboratory, but the gates to that particular facility had remained locked for years until now. Nobody really knew if the researchers were even still in there. Aspertia City had a large one as well, but Joel had never been there and thus couldn't teleport us.

We entered the UTA as soon as Joel's musharna was returned, waited for over half an hour before we were even called to the desk and then another half hour was spent filling out forms. Finally, it was time to do the actual examinations necessary to obtain a Trainer's License. The first of these was a general doctor's check-up and fitness test, which we had done a fortnight ago to save time. The examiner took the doctor's note from us and placed it in a pile of paperwork to be processed, then told us to head over to the touch screens to fill out the knowledge test. Wayne stood back, having already gotten his license over a year ago.

The test was simple, being mostly questions on safety procedures and where to go and where not to go on routes. Stick to the path, do not enter the thick foliage where the stronger, more feral pokémon reside, set up camp a little way from a water source and in an enclosed, safe environment. The number for emergency services was also included. Naomi finished the test first with an easy one-hundred percent of the questions answered correctly. I pulled through with just one wrong answer, sitting just above the ninety-five percent passing grade. Twenty minutes later and the four of us left the UTA grinning, brand new Trainer's Licenses in hand.

We shared a quick goodbye with Joel before he and his musharna disappeared.

"It's finally time to go!" Wayne yelled from excitement, earning stares from passersby and eye rolls from myself. "C'mon, I've been waiting for this moment for way too long. Can we just go? _Please_?"

Naomi giggled and released Write, who perched wide-eyed on her shoulder, quacking at a pidove a small distance away. "Well, Route 2 is north-west of here and heads north to Striaton City. That's where we have to go."

"Well then we're north-west, but _first_, Wayne" – the young boy was already half running towards the route. He stopped at the mention of his name and turned around – "First we need to do one more check over our things." Wayne groaned and shuffled back to us, swinging his bag off his shoulders. I rolled my eyes. "We're not going out there without supplies. Remember all those ti –"

"Yes, I remember those times," he grunted, then mumbled something about Naomi and I being too scared to leave with him before.

I plainly ignored him as I pulled out the checklist. In actual fact, this check over was not my idea, it was Joel's. He was the one who had warned us about supplies and rationing and making sure we had enough stuff to last us the whole trip to the next town. Route 2, according to most trainer guides, was supposed to take about a week to get through, and contained a lot of tricky pokémon, such as purrloin, which were known to steal food from trainers. As it turned out, we had a lot more food than we needed, so we left the town through the massive northern gates.

Route 2 was grassy, hilly and lined with a thick forest that looked impossible to enter. I was interested to find that the path was packed with trainers, having expected a quiet. Within ten minutes, Wayne had Lucky out and was challenging the first trainer he saw to a battle. I let Marla out and followed the boy over to the young girl he was abusing.

"I bet my Lucky could smash your venipede in a battle!" he gloated, hands on hips and beaming nastily at the other trainer. "Fire against bug, you wouldn't stand a chance."

"Leave the girl alone," Naomi said, rolling her eyes. Wright let out a quack and fluttered into the air, circling my head.

The girl just shook her head, placing the bug in her arms on the ground. "Sure, let's do this."

The battle was short. The girl seemed to know a lot more about pokémon than she let on, poisoning Lucky right off the bat. The little fire ape began to shiver violently, and looked extremely sick in the face, but remained able and willing to battle, even if all he was doing was scratching and licking. The venipede was ordered to curl up and raise its guard a little, then to use a move called rollout. From that point on, the battle was lost and we were forced to return to Accumula Town to heal the pansear. I smiled the whole way.

Did I really need a water-type pokémon to kick Wayne's butt? This venipede had a type disadvantage, yet it still literally rolled all over it. For some reason I had it in my head that Wayne was an okay trainer and he just couldn't handle the wilderness. I had it all wrong. Wayne was a terrible trainer. He had no other strategies but attack, attack, attack. The girl with the venipede was skilled enough to use both her pokémon's venom to weaken Lucky gradually while using a defence curl charged rollout to attack his type disadvantage to rock.

I decided that I would figure out how to beat Wayne without the use of water. I was confident that Marla could pull some tricks that could help beat the fire-type, and if she didn't know them yet, I would train her until she did. There was just that lingering problem: her timid nature and consequential fear of battle unless it really called for it. Just like me.

"You'll do better next time," Naomi said cheerfully, eyes on her ducklett, who was still fluttering around wildly. Wayne grunted, not convinced. "Training takes practise, just like everything else."

"You've never even trained before," he snapped, though it was little more than a mumble. Either she didn't hear it or chose to ignore. "I've been trying to train him for ages now and he's still losing to venipede."

"You mean he's lost like this before?" I questioned without thinking. The blonde boy just glared at me, hugging his shivering red monkey closer to his chest. "Sorry."

"Training is hard," he said quietly. "I was pretty good at it at one point, before I took like a year off to wait for you guys."

"I guess you just got rusty then," Naomi said with a shrug.

Wayne nodded. "Well, yeah. I remember this one time he beat three pidove in a row just with scratching. He's slowly learning to breathe fire. I think he'll be able to do it by the time we reach Striaton City."

"You might want to add a bit more strategy to your battling as well," I said, trying not to sound so condescending. It didn't work too well.

"You don't know anything about training!" Wayne barked, shooting forward and entering the red roofed building before us.

I had never been in a Pokémon Centre before, and needless to say I was impressed. The lobby was laid out with a large desk towards the rear, some padded seats closer to the front and some telephone-computer cubicles against a wall to the left. There was also a staircase situated to the right of the service desk and an archway on the other side which lead to a hallway. I assumed that the corridor lead to the cafeteria, laundry room and PokéMart. A few trainers were dotted around the room.

Wayne went straight to the service desk, which was manned by a pretty young nurse and two audino with black collars. Naomi and I chose to flop into the chairs near the entrance. Wright landed on my shoulder, quacking loudly.

"I think Wright likes you," Naomi said through a laugh. The ducklett didn't quiet and people were starting to stare.

"He sure likes yelling in my ear," I replied, tilting my head away from the bird, not that it made much difference. Then he went suddenly silent, puffed up his feathers, and pooped down my back before flittering off again. A few people in the room laughed and I shot a glare at Naomi for letting out a small giggle. "_Really_."

I got up and followed a sign indicating the location of the bathrooms down the hallway. I murmured a quick sorry to an older trainer I bumped into whilst taking off my jacket and headed into the ladies room. I stayed in there alone for a few minutes to wash the literal crap off my jacket and shove it into my bag. I was left with myself, the short, four-eyed girl with dull, flat hair and an inquisitive expression. I turned around to check if any of the ducklett droppings had somehow gotten under the jacket and onto the black tank top underneath. All clear of faeces, I decided to tie my hair back, throw my bag back over my shoulder and head back out into the lobby where Naomi and Wayne sat idly. Naomi had returned Wright to his pokéball.

Wayne burst into fits as soon as he saw me and I grumbled a few swears. I could do that now, since there were no grownups to stop me, but I still kept it quiet. Thankfully, Wayne didn't hear and began taunting me. "Welcome back, duckpoo."

Really. Duckpoo. I was going to retort with something, but decided it would be better to keep quiet. What with the venipede battle, he was already having a bad day. It was better for the three of us to let him have his fun.

* * *

It was mid afternoon by the time we got back onto the route and this time Wayne decided to dodge most of the trainers we encountered, preferring more to focus on defeating wild pokémon and teaching Lucky how to use fire attacks. I let Marla out for a stretch and Wright was allowed to fly around above us, quacking loudly the local fauna. The deerling, however, stayed close to me, occasionally nuzzling my face with a nervous whine. Wayne and Lucky ran off to battle a lillipup a small distance away while Naomi and I continued along the path chatting to pass the time.

"How are we going to get her confident enough to battle?" Naomi asked from the other side of the deerling in question. It was warming to know that my best friend was so willing to help me with my own training problems. She still had to actually teach her bird to battle. "I wonder why she's so scared of it in the first place."

"I wouldn't have a clue, but I'm sure we'll figure it out." I shrugged and continued to watch Lucky spit tiny embers from its mouth, though nothing really came from it. Instead, the fire monkey opted to scratch wildly at the canine's face. "Wright still needs to learn to battle though. You should teach him while the weaker pokémon are still here."

"Why don't we battle each other?" Naomi suggested, mimicking my shrug. "Wright will get some battling experience and hopefully Marla will gain at least a little confidence."

It really wasn't such a bad idea. I agreed with a nod and created some pace between myself and Naomi to battle in, all the while Marla whined nervously. I tried to calm her with a scratch near the tail.

"Alright, you're going to be battling a baby bird," I said, trying to be as comforting as possible. The deerling just stared back at me with big eyes. "Wright is only newly hatched, it should be a cinch!" With another whine, Marla stepped slowly forward while Wright fluttered down in a spiral, quacking excitedly before landing in front of Naomi.

"Okay, Wright," the girl said firmly as she crouched down to its level. "Do you know how to use Water Gun?"

The ducklett just quacked obliviously at her. He was still not trained to battle yet and thus had no idea what a Water Gun was. I guessed I was at least lucky to have a pokémon that could understand commands. It was getting her to battle that was the problem. Wayne and Lucky seemed to be doing a lot better than the other two of us. A glance in their direction caught the fall of the lillipup as it fell to the side, wounded and unconscious. The two victors whooped and cheered, the smaller of the two attempting to spit out some flames, once again failing.

"Okay, now do that to Mar—" I turned back to see my best friend being saturated in her ducklett's Water Gun. The stream subsided and Naomi grimaced. "No, face the deerling, here." She proceeded to lift the ducklett by his sides and turn him to face Marla. He quacked and ruffled his feathers, then shot a weak stream of water from his beak which barely reached the deerling's hooves.

Marla yelped and bounced backwards. I sighed, feeling the soft nudge of her nose on my back.

"Marla, go use Tackle," I tried to say with as much of a comforting tone as I could. "I promise you won't get hurt."

It took another few minutes of persuasion for me to actually get her to do something. However, the move she used was nothing more than a feeble growl from behind me. It was, however, enough to intimidate the tiny ducklett, if only slightly. The bird quacked and hopped forward a little more, attempting to get around and see Marla behind me.

"This is the slowest and most boring battle I have ever seen," Wayne droned from his newly acquired position on the sidelines. He and Lucky both sat identically cross-legged beside each other, using their arms to prop their heads up and watch.

"They're still learning!" Naomi protested, crouching down to lift Wright off the ground. The baby bird instead took flight and landed on Marla's back, quacking wildly the whole while. Marla herself yelped again and took off like a bullet, knocking the bird off her back in the process. I had never seen a deerling move like that before. She was _fast_.

"She isn't," Wayne commented eyeing the jittery grass-type, clearly unimpressed. "She knows how to battle, she's just too scared."

I felt an urge to slap him and challenge him to a battle right then and there, but logic told me not to. I took pride in my ability to hold myself back from conflict. In my entire life, I had never broken a bone in my body. You could say that I was just an extremely careful person; I didn't like getting hurt and I didn't like being the cause of another being's pain. I knew that Lucky was far stronger than Marla at this point, even if Marla did get over her fear of battle. It was just smarter to not battle.

"Oh, stop being so…" Naomi folded her arms, face screwed in an attempt to find the missing word in her mind. "So obnoxious."

"Calm down, guys," I deadpanned, eager to just move on from there. It seemed to work and I returned Marla.

We continued down the road until the sun disappeared over the trees, at which point I stopped everyone to build camp. There seemed to be no objections. Wayne and Lucky were tasked with clearing the area of all the wild pokémon while Naomi and myself started to work on the fire and erect the tents.

I let Marla out once more to stretch her legs and graze a little. She seemed to be keeping her eye on Wright the whole time, who was perched on a branch a few yards away, focused more on Lucky's battle with a purloin below. The flashes of the tiny ape's strengthening fire-type moves were slowly getting brighter in the steadying darkness. Either he was getting stronger or the darkened sky just made the feeble flames more impressive.

Eventually every puppy, kitten, rodent and round pink pokémon decided it was better not to come near the area. Naomi and I had successfully erected three tents and gathered enough firewood for Lucky to set alight. The fire-type stood close to the fire, staring into its depths and occasionally reaching out to poke the blackening fuel. The three of us trainers sat on a long log at a safe enough distance to not freeze in the cold night, yet not turn into a pile of sweating flesh. The remaining two pokémon, however, chose to sit further away. The ducklett perched itself atop my tent while my deerling sat wide-eyed and cautious below it.

I was learning that Marla was scared of absolutely everything and I wanted to know why. I figured that if I got to the root of her fear I'd be able to cure her of it. Maybe then Marla would find the confidence and fearlessness to battle and I could actually do well as a trainer. There was really no point setting out on this adventure if I wasn't going to succeed. But how was I meant to know her past, or learn of it? I couldn't talk to her about it, and good luck to me finding a psychic willing to translate. It was virtually impossible.

"The first night is always the worst," Wayne grumbled. I noticed he was staring into the fire with as much enthusiasm as the log they sat on. I grimaced. This was very out of character of him.

"It's not that bad," Naomi said with an optimistic glance to the night sky. "It's peaceful."

"My first night ever as a trainer, Lucky attacked me in my sleep."

It was as if everybody had stopped breathing. I had never experienced such a timeless sensation. How had we been best friends for this long and never found out about this? I felt no rage, no offense, just confusion. I found myself asking, "Why?"

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat on the log. "We didn't know each other well at all and he literally caught a few days before he was given to me. He was still wild."

"But… his pokéball," I questioned, still in shock. "Don't they form bonds or something? He should have been tame."

"Come on," Wayne replied with a raised brow. I knew what he was about to say without him opening his mouth. "You're smart enough to not think that a ball of metal and wire can tame a wild pokémon." He drew a deep breath and closed his eyes. "That was why I suggested we make a pact. We will travel this whole journey together, even if we are separated. We'll always have each others' backs, from start to finish and we will always find a way to each other if the other is in danger."

"What did you do with Wayne?" I asked, still taken aback by how suddenly humble he was. He didn't reply, instead just stared at me.

"I think we should do it," Naomi said with a nod and held out her hand. "Seal it with our hands."

As much as this seemed silly to me, I couldn't stop myself from placing my own hand atop her's. Wayne looked somewhat comforted as he rested his hand lightly on mine and the pact was finalized. My two best friends couldn't seem to hold back any kind of smile. I smiled back at them, feeling content with how this journey was turning out already.

With all of the mayhem of the day and the restless night before, falling asleep was easy. Staying asleep was the hard part.

My first night's sleep on the open road ended after a mere two hours. I woke up to a single voice having an argument with silence.

"Shut up, what would you know?" The voice was young and masculine, and he sounded frustrated. I kept my eyes closed, but my ears alert. There was no response to his rhetorical question, but the boy's voice replied to the nothing. "Are you serious? This is nothing about that. This is about protecting what I love. I can't let her do this."

There was a buzzing and a loud ringing noise in my sleeping bag and my phone's light flashed brightly. I cursed at myself in my mind as the talking outside stopped. I shrunk into my sleeping bag to check the text message I had just received. It was from Wayne, of course. He was the only one in our trio stupid enough to make noises and lights when there was a potential thief outside our tents. They were still out there, too. No sound of movement, no voices, but I knew they were staring at my tent.

'_r u awake? r u hearin dis?'_

I ignored the message, set my phone to silent and kept it inside the sleeping bag. A pokéball opened on the outside of the tent, causing a flash, but no sound came from the pokémon that came out.

"Fūma, check the tents," the boy outside whispered. In the dead of night, he might as well have yelled it out, but at least I knew to tuck myself further into my cocoon of fluff and cloth. There was silence for a few seconds before the zipper at my feet began to open. It was slow, trying to be as quiet as possible in case I was actually asleep. Unfortunately, I was very much awake and fearing for my life and safety every time the zipper clicked. "Fūma. The red tent."

Wayne's tent. My zipper was left alone.

My phone received another text, but did not pierce the silence this time. The trainer outside didn't seem to notice.

'_get marla out when i giv u the has rite redy.'_

Not a second later, Wayne's zipper sounded like it was ripped upwards and a hot, orange light flared in a stream, flashing past my tent. Lucky screeched in surprise and I could hear Wayne let out a small cheer. The monkey had done it. He had actually learned to create a real jet of flames. This sounded like the most stupid plan, but I had to go along with it. There was no time to object and I figured that a column of fire was enough of a sign for me. Naomi's screamed from the next tent and the fluttering of Wright's wings sounded.

The boy outside yelped. "Fūma, take the little shit out. Lilith, do something."

I grabbed Marla's pokéball and unzipped the tent as quickly as I could, then jumped out into the scene. Needless to say, I was not prepared for it at all.

* * *

**A/N**

And so my little angels have run into their first obstacle.

This took a _long_ time to get out. So much has happened though, and I'm happy for that. The reason I stopped, though, is that the only inspiration for this fic was just me wanting to do a darkfic, but I had no real plot. So now I've slowly but finally begun to develop one and it's just great.

I also came up with a few other ideas, but they probably won't happen for a while.

I would like to thank **Y-ko** for the inspiration to finish this chapter. Though it was a while ago that we actually talked about it, it really motivated me. Thanks, dude.


End file.
